The 288 GTO book by Lewandowski isn't bad. And he's working on a totally updated edition, massively enlarged and with fresh and additional data. Marcel Massini
I stopped getting his calendar because his hard, almost brittle use of light took away from the cars and the setting.
I don’t know much about photography: Is it his use of light or manipulation of the image when the picture is processed?
I think it is both. Most professional photographers have a favorite time of day to take advantage of a particular type of light. I think he does over process his photos. I guess I am old fashioned, especially after looking at "Making A Difference" this morning. Classical B&W, interesting backgrounds and a focus on the cars.
The "Making a Difference" pix are 70 years old, most of them. Black white pix cannot/should not be compared to color pix. Looking at bw pix one needs so much more fantasy and imagination and that is stimulating. I do prefer bw actually because it makes me think how life was back then. I must be a dinosaur. Marcel Massini
I can still remember a cousin of mine in Stockholm in the mid seventies, I was ten and he was six, asking his dad whether the world was black and white before. I said that is a stupid question! But his dad, a Royal air force jet pilot, said no, seeing all these black and white photos makes it a legitimate question. I love the charm and mystery of B & W. When I was a teen at a boarding school outside Paris we had a photo studio and class, we shot in B &W and then developed our own pix, that was a thrill....
I recently heard a film critic say he preferred black and white to color movies (in most cases) because its mere use as a medium automatically transports the viewer one step from reality, which is the point of movies that are made to entertain, as opposed to educate, an audience. Also, black and white demands more from a director and cinematographer because of the more critical role played by lighting, locations, set design, etc.
I think the British were the last to convert over to color judging by all their B&W photos even in the 1960's , wich is funny because they helped develop Kodachrome. Also news print photographers used B&W as that's what most news magazines and newspapers wanted. Black and white adds a more historical look and almost mystical feeling to the photos. For Ferrari historical racing photos it makes it feel dark and gritty war like.
At least it was better than the horrible Sackey book on the same subject. But looking back it was a rather marginal book, bilingual at that too. Automobilia used to do badly produced trilingual books, I got rid of most of them.
I will never be a part of a bi or worse trilingual book; you are paying for twice, thrice the same thing, that is the only thing I did not like about the 312P book. I will also not do books where interviews are cut like a vulgar saucisson [into slices inserted in the body of the book text], I turned down a Ferrari book project about an individual car because of that. I firmly believe that an interview is an opportunity to virtually sit in the room with someone whose wisdom is enlightening and who won't be there forever. Most importantly since it is not all about nuts and bolts but about people you get a feel for the person that way which you don' t get properly by taking an interview to a ham slicer.
+1000: Give me Nosferatu, 1922 instead of a thousand idiotic gore films. It is the atmosphere that matters not gallons of ketchup.
The Walt Hansgen book should be sub titled "Jaguar Racing in America" it's incredibly detailed, and an enjoyable read...
Many of the David Bull publications are wonderful. I still cherish 'Racing in the Rain' - by John Horsman, as a most valuable possesion.
It has zero photos and is statistics only. Done privately and is a print-on-demand publication. I paid Euro 75. Marcel Massini
The same goes for the other books in that series, Bentley Continental, Lamborghini Diablo, Mercedes C140, Audi Sport Quattro etc. Natan
I guess I have a soft spot for trilingual books as some of my first Ferrari books I bought were the Automobilia series on the Testarossa, 412, F40, etc that were all in three languages (and annoyingly consisted mostly of Ferrari brochures and owners manuals). I actually felt very cosmopolitan as a young boy in Australia owning and reading books that were clearly designed for a wider European market. But I see your point about all that real estate on a page taken up with two other languages that could have otherwise been used to add more detail if only printed in just the one. Terrible value for money !!
... but, as it turns out, a good investment if the asking prices for some of them are anything to go by.
Crazy huh !! As I said, they are mostly just "average" in information and quality, I have the full set of the Ferrari model releases and can't believe the prices for editions like the Spyder California, 412 and 456 M GT/A !! For the last two it's probably due to the fact that not many books were published on those specific models (good, bad or otherwise).
There have been far too few books on the 4 seaters of Maranello, Modena and Sant'Agata; a great pity and that probably explains it.
Are you? I don't know much about publishing but I assume the reason for publishing a multi-lingual book rather than multiple editions in different languages is that, in the end, it is more cost-effective for the publisher and, therefore, that the book you end up with doesn't cost more even though it has more pages. There is also a small advantage in having the original language to refer to since, in many cases, for niche books the translation is not always as good as it might be and certainly I have sometimes got a better understanding of what is being said be looking at the original language printed alongside. Whilst I imagine English-language sales for most such books are likely to be dominant, for the publisher it may also be the only way they can make the numbers work to have the book available in English.
Not ideal but would not put me off buying books such as some of Mckleins excellent publications. In fact there are so many great German books on classic motorsports, unfortunately in German text .From a selfish perspective this would be ideal if produced in English as well as the mother tongue of the originating publisher. I would be happy to buy them all day long